Since September 2010, this blog has recorded the journey of this middle-aged man as I attempt to listen to all the music in my CD collection. CDs revisited in their entirety from start to finish - no skipping tracks, no shuffle. CDs only - no vinyl, no tapes, no downloads. And just as CD technology (and the album format itself) becomes obsolete. I'm no music critic, just a music junkie with too much time on my hands.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

"Everybody's born knowing all the Beatles lyrics instinctively. They're passed into the fetus subconsciously along with all the amniotic stuff." - from the 1998 movie, Sliding Doors.

I don't know what I could possibly write about this album that hasn't already been written. It is widely heralded as one of the best albums of all-time. You've heard it; you have your own special relationship with the music. In 2007, Aimee Mann wrote in the NY Times, "When I was 8, I’d never heard anything like it, and I can honestly say that if I live to be 100, I’ll never hear anything like it again." When I started making the transition from LPs to CDs in the mid '80s, this was one of the first 5 CDs I purchased.

I became familiar with this album when one of the older sisters of my childhood friend Charlie gave him a copy for his birthday. I remember listening to it at his place in Odessa.

When I was in college, the lyrics to the song She's Leaving Home were included in a poetry anthology I had to purchase for freshman English. I had never thought of those lyrics in that way before.

When I saw Paul McCartney live in Houston in 2005, he performed a few songs from this album, including the reprise to the title song to close out the show.

Just this past summer, I visited the Royal Albert Hall on a trip to London. How could any Beatles fan visit that place and not hear the lyrics "Now they now how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall" from A Day in the Life?

Disclaimer: Opinions about recordings mentioned on this blog are in no way absolute and subject to change at any time due to factors such as aging, mood, diet, wind direction, shirt color, moon phase, alcohol intake, Daylight Savings Time, etc.

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